Yellow River works, Directorate of Waterways

The Yellow River is the greatest civil problem of the reign.

English Wikipedia (Changes in the course of the Yellow River) says the river was turned south into the Si and Huai system by Du Chong's breach at Huazhou in 1128, that northward overflows after that were repeatedly blocked to keep the southern course, and that in 1194 (the fifth year of Mingchang) it breached its dikes at Yangwu and flooded eastward toward Fengqiu. The Jin dynasty page says the flood formed two new courses, and the 1194 flood article says it devastated the north China plain, wrecked the regional economy, made many thousands of refugees and was met with extensive relief by the Grand Canal. As I recall the later Chinese accounts, the water gathered in the Liangshan marsh and then divided: a northern branch down the North Qing river (the old Ji, the later Daqing) to the Bohai and a southern branch down the South Qing river (the Si) to the Huai.

That would fit the regional brief's northern arm. We could not confirm it, nor say which branch carried the main water on 1 January 1200. The works are done by the Directorate of Waterways, the county officers who raise the levy of households, and the dike gangs. The river course of 1128 through Juancheng, Juye, Jiaxiang and Jinxiang was the old lower channel.

Who he is

Title: Directorate of Waterways (Dushui jian) and the river officers of the counties
Confidence: low

No head of the Directorate is dated for 1 January 1200.

Overlord

Emperor Zhangzong

What it holds

The dikes and breach repairs of the lower river
The relief grain from the Grand Canal
The registers of the displaced

How things stand that morning

The river is out of its old bed and the relief goes on. Henan is the worse hit and is ncn's. On our ground the flooded edge is the plain of southern Shandong West: Caozhou and Shanzhou on the campaign board's account, the Liangshan marsh, and the country toward Jizhou and Yanzhou.

Threats

More breaches in the flood season of 1200
Famine and banditry among the displaced
A revolt of the dike levies

Places of note

Yangwu breach: Site of the 1194 breach (Henan; ncn writes it).

Where the sources disagree

The regional brief says the river runs south-east to the Huai with a northern arm still working. English Wikipedia's Changes page gives the 1194 breach at Yangwu flooding east toward Fengqiu without naming a northern arm; the Jin dynasty page says two new courses formed; the 1194 flood page says the river shifted away from the Hai route and that the Si's course in Shandong shifted and shrank, and it gives no month or place. Our recollection of a northern branch by the North Qing river to the Bohai and a southern one by the South Qing to the Huai fits the brief but is not checked. Treat the northern arm as probable (medium to low confidence), not pinned.

Evidence: The 1128 and 1194 breaches are in English Wikipedia; the Jinshi's Hequ zhi was not opened.

On the map: Drawn as the flood-affected plain, not a river channel.

Primary sources for Jin empire

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

Annals of the Western Xia, Wu Guangcheng (吳廣成) (1825 to 1827, compiled from Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's year-by-year reconstruction of Tangut history from the Chinese histories, since the Xia left no surviving annals of their own in Chinese. Read online
Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, Bi Yuan (畢沅), completed by Feng Jiwu after his death (late eighteenth century, finished after 1801, from Song and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's continuous month-by-month chronicle of the Song and Yuan centuries, compiled from the Song shi, the Liao, Jin and Yuan histories, Li Tao, Li Xinchuan and other Song sources. Read online
Essentials of the History of Goryeo, Kim Jong-seo (金宗瑞) and the Joseon history office (1452). The chronological companion to the Goryeosa, finished a year after it and drawing on the same lost records, sometimes with entries the Goryeosa omits. Read online
Outline and Details of Two Reigns (thirteenth century, after 1224). A Song outline-and-detail chronicle of exactly the two reigns around 1200, drawn from the court's daily records. Read online
Record of the Personal Campaigns of the Holy Warrior (Chinggis Khan) (presented to Khubilai in 1288, finished in Mongolian in 1290; the surviving Chinese version dates from 1369). A year-by-year Chinese account of Temujin's wars, drawn from the lost Altan Debter (the same source behind the Yuan shi's first chapter and Rashid al-Din). Read online
The Secret History of the Mongols (1228 or 1240 (the colophon's Year of the Rat is disputed), with later additions; the surviving Chinese transcription and gloss were made under the Ming in the 1380s). The only Mongol account of Temujin's rise, written within living memory. Read online
History of the Jin, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office, with Ouyang Xuan among the chief compilers (1343 to 1344, from the Jin veritable records and the Jin national history). The official history of the Jurchen empire that ruled north China and Manchuria in 1200. Read online
Record of the Great Jin State, Attributed to Yuwen Maozhao (宇文懋昭); the attribution is doubtful (preface dated 1234; probably assembled in the Southern Song from Song and Jin material, with later accretions). A Song-side history of the Jin, with annals for each emperor and chapters on institutions, customs, the capitals and the Jurchen way of life. Read online

14 more in the sources library for North China and Manchuria.

Sources and studies

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.